The revenue buildings, begun in 1828 on the site of the original Liverpool dock, formerly combined the customs, inland revenue, post-office and dock board departments but are now only used by the two first named. It is a heavy structure, with three advanced porticoes in the Ilyssus Ionic style. Near by stands the sailors' home, a large building in the Elizabethan style. The Philharmonic Hall in Hope Street, with not much pretension externally, is one of the finest music rooms in the kingdom; it accommodates an audience of about 2500. The group of buildings forming the county sessions house, the free public library, museum, central technical school and gallery of art are finely situated on the slope to the north of St George's Hall. The library and gallery of art are separate buildings, connected by the circular reading-room in the middle. The latter possesses some features in construction worthy of note, having a circular floor 100 ft. in diameter without columns or any intermediate support, and a lecture-room underneath, amphitheatrical in form, with grades or benches hewn out of the solid rock. In 1884 the county sessions house just mentioned, adjoining the art gallery was opened for public business. In 1899 new post-office buildings in Victoria Street were completed. In 1907 two important additions were made to the buildings of Liverpool, the new offices of the dock board, built on the site of a portion of the Old George's dock, and the new cotton exchange in Oldhall street. The fine mass of buildings which constitute the university and the Royal Infirmary, lying between Brownlow Hill and Pembroke Place, both groups designed by Alfred Waterhouse, was begun in 1885. Liverpool cathedral, intended when completed to be the largest in the country, from designs by G. F. Bodley and G. Gilbert Scott, was begun in 1904, when the foundation stone was laid by King Edward VII. The foundations were completed in 1906 and the superstructure begun. The foundation of the chapter-house was laid in that year by the duke of Connaught, and work was then begun on the Lady chapel, the vestries and the choir.